Georgia's Death Row: Those executed and their victims

Crime & Public Safety

Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, Georgia has executed 60-plus convicted criminals.

Death by electrocution (1924-72; 1976-2000): The electric chair at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center in Jackson was once the state's sole method of execution after the General Assembly outlawed hanging in 1924. Electrocution was used to put prisoners to death from 1924-1972. When the death penalty was reinstated nationally in 1976, electrocution was also reintroduced. In 2000, the Georgia General Assembly passed a law instituting lethal injection as the state's method of execution, ending the use of the so-called "electric chair." Terry Mincey became the first prisoner executed by lethal injection in October 2001. The following inmates shown in this gallery, up through Terry Mincey in 2001, were all electrocuted.

JOHN ELDON SMITH: John Eldon Smith was the first person executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court suspended capital punishment from 1972-76. Smith died in Georgia's electric chair on December 15, 1983, for the shotgun murders of Ronald Akins and Akins' wife Juanita in August 1974.

IVON RAY STANLEY: Stanley was convicted of the shooting of insurance collector Clifford Floyd in Decatur County in April 1976. Floyd was buried alive. Stanley was executed in July 1984. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

ROOSEVELT GREEN JR.: Teresa Carol Allen, 18, a store clerk in Cochran, Ga., was kidnapped and raped in December 1976 as part of an armed robbery. Green was electrocuted January 9, 1985. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM: TERESA CAROL ALLEN: Carolyn Allen holds a photo of her murdered daughter, Teresa Carol Allen, who was killed in December 1976 after she was robbed, abducted and raped. Teresa was working the evening shift at a Cochran, Ga., convenience store when the crime took place. Mrs. Allen says she has never been able to get over the anger she feels about what happened to her daughter and the effect it has had upon her own life. She is holding Teresa's senior portrait from Cochran High School.

VAN ROOSEVELT SOLOMON: Solomon received the death sentence for the June 1979 armed robbery and murder of Tenneco gas station manager Roger Dennis Tackett in Cobb County. Tackett had been beaten and shot five times. Solomon was electrocuted in February 1985. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

JEROME BOWDEN: Bowden was convicted of stabbing Kathryn Striker, 55, and her paralyzed, bedridden mother, 76, to death with a butcher knife in October 1976 during a burglary at the womens' Muscogee County home. Kathryn Stryker's skull was beaten in. Bowden was executed in June 1986. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

WILLIAM BOYD TUCKER: Tucker stabbed 19-year-old Kathleen Parry, a pregnant, newlywed store clerk in Muscogee County, to death during a robbery. Tucker also kidnapped Parry, dumping her body in a ditch off a roadway. Tucker was executed by electrocution in May 1987. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

TIMOTHY W. McCORQUODALE: In January 1974, the mutilated body of 17-year-old Donna Marie Dixon was found in a garbage dumpster in Clayton County. McCorquodale was convicted of her murder by strangulation. Dixon was tortured, raped and sodomized before her death. In July 1980, McCorquodale was one of four Death Row inmates to escape from the maximum security prison in Reidsville, Ga. He was captured in North Carolina two days after his escape after a standoff with police. McCorquodale was executed in September 1987 after years of delay due to numerous legal appeals. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

WARREN McCLESKEY: During a May 1978 furniture store robbery, McCleskey shot and killed Atlanta Police Officer Frank Schlatt, who responded to the incident. Schlatt was shot once in the face and once in the chest. McCleskey denied shooting Schlatt but later admitted the shooting to a co-defendant and a fellow jail inmate. In September 1991, McCleskey was electrocuted.

VICTIM: Atlanta Police officer FRANK SCHLATT: Frank Schlatt, 30, was an officer with the Atlanta Police Department. He'd been with the department for five years and had a wife and daughter. "I feel for his family, but he's had 13 years to say goodbye to his family and to make peace with God," said Jodie Schlatt Swanner, the daughter of Officer Schlatt, of McCleskey. "I never got to say goodbye to my father. This has nothing to do with vengence. It has to do with justice." -- Some information from murderpedia.org

THOMAS DEAN STEVENS: Stevens, a soldier at Georgia's Fort Stewart, and a fellow serviceman, Christopher Burger, were both convicted of the September 1977 armed robbery, rape and drowning murder of another soldier, Army Private Roger Honeycutt, who was moonlighting as a taxi cab driver. Stevens raped and sodomized Honeycutt before forcing him into the trunk of the cab, which Burger later drove into a pond in a wooded area. Honeycutt, tied up in the trunk, drowned. Stevens and Burger (not pictured) were both given death sentences. Stevens died in the electric chair in June 1993 and Burger was executed in December of that year. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

WILLIAM HENRY HANCE: Hance, an Army private stationed at Fort Benning in Columbus, was convicted of the murders of Karen Hickman, Irene Thirkield and Brenda Faison during 1977-78. The women, all prostitutes, were killed by beatings with a jack handle. Hance's killings occurred during the same period that serial killer Carlton Gary, "The Stocking Strangler," was preying on Columbus-area women. Gary currently awaits execution in Georgia. Hance was electrocuted in March 1994.

NICHOLAS LEE INGRAM: British-born Nicholas Lee Ingram right sits shackled in a Butts County, Ga., court with his attorney Clive Stafford Smith April 5, 1995, in an unsuccessful last ditch effort to evade the death penalty, Ingram was put to death in Georgia's electric chair on april 7, 1995, for the June 1983 murder of J.C. Sawyer at his home north of Atlanta. Ingram shot Sawyer and his wife in the head after robbing the couple of $60 and their truck. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

DARRELL GENE DEVIER: Devier, working as a tree-trimmer in rural Bartow County in November 1979, was convicted of raping and choking Mary Frances Stoner, 12, to death after kidnapping her. Stoner's body was found in a wooded area of Floyd County. Her head had been crushed with a large rock. Devier was put to death in May 1995. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

LARRY GRANT LONCHAR: Lonchar, several thousand dollars in debt to a DeKalb County bookmaking operation, was convicted of murdering the operation's leaders, Wayne Smith and his son Steven, and Wayne Smith's companion, Margaret Sweat. The victims were shot and stabbed to death. Sweat was shot, stabbed in the neck 17 times and stabbed three times in the chest. Lonchar died in the electric chair in November 1996. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

ELLIS WAYNE FELKER: Felker was convicted of the rape and murder of Evelyn Joy Ludlam, 19. He had a prior conviction for aggravated sodomy and served a 12-year prison sentence. Though there were serious questions concerning Felker's guilt in the Ludlam case, the Georgia Supreme Court would not order a new trial or grant a stay of execution. It was learned that prosecutors illegally withheld boxes of evidence that might have exonerated Felker in Ludlam's killing. Felker was electrocuted in November 1996. In 2000, an attempt at using DNA testing to exonerate Felker was ruled inconclusive. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM: EVELYN JOY LUDLAM: Joy Ludlam was a 19-year-old student at Macon Junior College. She worked as a cocktail waitress at the Warner Robins Holiday Inn. Wayne Felker, convicted of her murder, had offered her a job at his business, The Leather Shoppe. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

Death by lethal injection (2000-present): The electric chair used to put 441 Georgia inmates to death over the past 77 years has been replaced by a gurney, shown in the death chamber at the state prison in Jackson, Ga., Oct. 24, 2001. Terry Mincey was the first inmate executed by lethal injection after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that electrocution violated the state constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The yellow door goes to the holding cell, the two chrome encircled holes go to the control room behind the glass to the left and the right windows allow a view from the witness room.

TERRY MICHAEL MINCEY: In April 1982, Mincey and two accomplices robbed a Macon convenience store. He shot an off-duty Bibb County firefighter as well as store clerk Paulette Riggs, whom Mincey robbed of $40 before ordering her out of the store. When Riggs began to run from Mincey, he shot at her and she fell. Mincey then shot Riggs in the head. In October 2001, Mincey became the first person to be executed in Georgia by lethal injection. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM: PAULETTE RIGGS: Paulette Riggs, 38 when she was killed, worked at the Mini Food Store to help support her family. Before Mincey shot Riggs, she distracted him, giving two teenage witnesses who Mincey had ordered into the trunk of his car, a chance to escape into a nearby field. -- Some information from murderpedia.org and timesrecord news.com

JOSE MARTINEZ HIGH: High was convicted of the murder of an 11-year-old boy, Bonnie Bulloch, during a July 1976 armed robbery / kidnapping at a Crawfordsville, Ga., Amoco service station. Bulloch had been helping his stepfather, Henry Phillips, the station operator, when High and accomplices robbed the store, kidnapping Phillips and Bulloch. The pair were ordered to lie on the ground. Henry was shot in the temple and wrist and the boy was shot in the head. High was executed in November 2001. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

FRED MARION GILREATH JR.: Gilreath was convicted of the May 1979 shooting murders of his wife, Linda, and her father, Gerrit Van Leeuwen, when Linda and Van Leeuwen came to Gilreath's home to pick up some of her belongings after she left him following an argument. Gilreath was put to death in November 2001. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

BYRON ASHLEY PARKER: Parker was convicted of the rape, kidnapping and strangulation murder of 11-year-old Christie Ann Griffith in June 1984. Parker was on felony probation at the time of the killing. Parker was executed in December 2001. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

RONALD KEITH SPIVEY: Spivey was convicted of the December 1976 murders of Charles McCook in a Macon pool hall fight over $20 and off-duty police officer Bill Watson in Columbus. He was executed by lethal injection in January 2002. -- Some information from murderpedia.org (Georgia Dept. of Corrections)

TRACY LEE HOUSEL: Housel was convicted of the rape, robbery and strangulation murder of Jean Drew in Gwinnett County as part of a two-month February/April 1985 crime spree around the U.S. Before killing Drew, Housel had killed a man in Texas, stabbed an Iowa man and sodomized a New Jersey woman. Housel was executed in March 2002. -- Some information from murderpedia.org (Georgia Department of Corrections)

WALLACE MARVIN FUGATE III: Fugate was convicted of the shooting murder of his ex-wife, Pattie, in May 1991. The Fugates' son Mark, 15 at the time of the killing, testified at trial that his father shot his mother, but following the shooting his written statement to police stated that he did not see his father shoot his mother. Fugate, who claimed the shooting was accidental, personally invited then-Georgia Governor Roy Barnes to witness his execution, which was carried out in August 2002. -- Some information from murderpedia.org (Georgia Department of Corrections)

WILLIAM HOWARD PUTMAN: Putman, a truck driver from Alabama, was convicted of the July 1980 shooting murders of three people in South Georgia. William Hodges, a teacher, was found dead at a Valdosta truck stop. Later the same night, a Kentucky couple traveling with their three children and a niece were sleeping at an I-75 rest area near Lenox, Ga., when the husband, David Hardin, was shot in the head. Putman demanded that the wife, Katie Hardin, leave with him. When she refused, she, too, was shot in the head. Putman was eventually arrested at a Dooly County I-75 rest area. He was put to death in November 2002. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

LARRY EUGENE MOON: Moon was convicted of the November/December 1984 murder of Ricky Callahan, who had gone out to buy headache medicine for his wife. Callahan, who had been shot twice in the head, was discovered in a rock pit. Moon was also accused of two other killings, one of which he admitted to, claiming self-defense. He was convicted of neither. Moon was executed in March 2003. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

CARL JUNIOR ISAACS: Isaacs, convicted of the May 14, 1973, rape, robbery and mass murder of six members of the Alday family in Seminole County, Ga., after escaping from a Maryland penal institution. Isaacs, his brother Billy, half-brother Wayne Coleman and friend George Dungee burglarized the home of one Alday family member, which led to the shootings of Jerry Alday, his father Ned, Jerry's brother Chester, and Ned's brother Aubrey. Jerry Alday's wife, Mary, was raped repeatedly and kidnapped. She was killed by Dungee. Isaacs was put to death almost 30 years to the date of the 1973 killing spree, dying by lethal injection on May 6, 2003. Isaacs was the longest-serving inmate on Death Row in any U.S. state. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIMS: The NED ALDAY family: "We feel that Carl Isaacs' end was too humane," said Paige Seagraves, Ned Alday's granddaughter, after Isaacs' execution. "We want to emphasize that we do not believe this to be justice. In fact, the last 30 years have been cruel and unusual punishment for our family," she said. In the Donalsonville, Ga., cemetery, a 20-foot-long marble tombstone, erected by surviving family members, marks the graves of the six Alday family members who were killed in 1973. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

JAMES WILLIE BROWN: After two trials and nearly 30 years, Brown, who was convicted of raping and murdering a young woman, was executed in November 2003 for murdering Atlanta's Brenda Sue Watson, 21, in May 1975. After having dinner with Watson, a topless dancer, Brown took her to a dirt road off Deshon Road in Lilburn where he raped her and suffocated her with her own panties.

ROBERT KARL HICKS: Hicks, 47, a convicted rapist who fatally stabbed Toni Strickland Rivers nine months after he was released from prison, was executed in July 2004. Hicks attempted to kidnap Rivers. After catching her he stabbed her, nearly decapitating her. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

EDDIE ALBERT CRAWFORD: Crawford was convicted of the rape and strangulation murder of his 29-month-old niece, Leslie Michelle English, in September 1983. The baby's body was found in a wooded area. Crawford was executed in July 2004. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

TIMOTHY DON CARR: Carr was convicted of the stabbing death of 17-year-old Keith Patrick Young in October 1992 after attending a party with the victim. Young was driven to a remote area of Monroe County, where his throat was slashed, he was repeatedly stabbed and then beaten in the head with a baseball bat. In January 2005, Carr was executed. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

STEPHEN ANTHONY MOBLEY: Mobley was convicted of the armed robbery and shooting death of Domino's Pizza store manager John C. Collins, 24, in February 1991. Collins was shot in the back of the head. Mobley went on to commit a series of six armed robberies at various restaurants and dry cleaning shops. "Following his incarceration, Mobley bragged about the murder and had the word 'Domino' tattooed on his back, placed a Dominoâs pizza box in his cell on the wall, and carried a domino piece in his pocket," according to murderpedia.org. Mobley was put to death in March 2005. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

ROBERT DALE CONKLIN: Conklin was convicted of the stabbing death and dismemberment of his lover, attorney George Grant Crooks, in March 1984. A maintenance man at Conklin's apartment complex discovered human body parts, knives, bloody clothes and other paraphernalia belonging to Crooks. Conklin admitted to stabbing Crooks with a screwdriver and then dissecting his body. Conklin was on parole for armed robbery and burglary at the time of the killing. Conklin was executed in July 2005. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

JOHN WASHINGTON HIGHTOWER: Hightower was sentenced to death for the July 1987 shooting murders of his wife, Dorothy, and her two daughters, Evelyn and Sandra Reaves. Hightower shot each victim in the head after they went to sleep. He was executed in June 2007. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

WILLIAM EARL LYND: Lynd was convicted of shooting Ginger Moore, his live-in girlfriend three times in the face, killing her and then burying her body in a shallow grave near a south Georgia farmhouse in December 1988. He also shot and killed Leslie Joan Sharkey in Ohio. Lynd was executed in May 2008. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

CURTIS OSBORNE: Osborne, convicted of the August 1990 shooting deaths and robbery of Linda Lisa Seaborne and Arthur Jones, told police that he owed money to Jones and that Jones had threatened to beat him. Osborne was put to death in June 2008. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

JACK EDWARD ALDERMAN: Alderman was convicted of drowning his wife, Barbara, in a September 1974 attempt to collect insurance money. With an accomplice, he beat his wife with a crescent wrench before choking and drowning her in a bathtub. The accomplice committed suicide in 2000 when police attempted to arrest him on child molestation charges. Alderman was executed in September 2008. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM: BARBARA JEAN ALDERMAN: Rheta Blase poses with a photo of her murdered daughter, Barbara Jean Alderman, in Savannah in 1987. Alderman's older sister, Rhetta Braddy, told the Savannah Morning News in 2008 that Jack Alderman's execution would "be justice for Barbara, but the family will always know." -- Some information from savannahnow.com (William Berry / AJC file)

ROBERT L. NEWLAND: Newland, who lived across the street from victim Carol Beatty, was convicted of stabbing her with a knife in May 1986 after he attempted to kiss her and she rebuffed him. Beatty, who died from her injuries in the hospital, identified Newland. He gave a complete confession upon his arrest. Newland was executed in March 2009. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

WILLIAM MARK MIZE: Mize, the leader of the white supremacist group National Vastilian Aryan Party (NVAP), was convicted of shooting a member of his group, Eddie Tucker, to death with a shotgun in October 1994. Tucker was shot in a wooded area after an unsuccessful attempt to burn down what the men characterized as a "crack house." Mize was executed in April 2009. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

MARK HOWARD McCLAIN: McClain was convicted of the November 1994 armed robbery and murder of Domino's Pizza store manager Kevin Brown. McClain later gave his girlfriend $100 without explaining where he'd gotten the money. The girlfriend testified at trial that McClain told her to get rid of his clothes, boots and his gun and threatened to implicate her if she didn't provide him with an alibi. McClain claimed he shot Brown accidentally. McClain was executed in October 2009. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM: KEVIN SCOTT BROWN: The grave site for Kevin Scott Brown is shown at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Graniteville, S.C., where he was buried in November 1994. (Pouya Dinyat / AJC file)

MELBERT RAY FORD JR.: Ford was convicted of the shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Martha Chapman Matich, and her 11-year-old niece, Lisa Chapman, in March 1986. Ford had told a friend that he was going to rob the grocery store where Matich worked and "blow her brains out." Ford was executed in June 2010. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

BRANDON JOSEPH RHODE: Rhode, along with current Death Row inmate Daniel Lucas, was convicted of the April 1998 murders of Steven Moss, his son Bryan, 11, and daughter Kristin, 15, during a robbery at the Moss family's home. Rhode died by lethal injection in September 2010. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

EMMANUEL FITZGERALD HAMMOND: Hammond was convicted of the kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder of Julie Love in July 1988. Love was beaten with a shotgun, raped and then shot in a wooded location. Hammond admitted to then-girlfriend Janice Weldon that he "blew the side of [Love's] face off." Hammond later offered a fellow inmate $20,000 to kill Weldon, who received immunity for testifying against Hammond and his accomplice, Maurice Porter. Hammond was executed in January 2011. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM: JULIE LOVE: Love, an Atlanta preschool teacher, was abducted by Hammond, Janice Weldon and Maurice Porter while walking down a road after her car ran out of gas. Love's fiance, Mark Kaplan, pushed police to launch an investigation after he found Love's abandoned red Mustang. The Augusta Chronicle wrote this in a January 2011 article about the case: "Roz Cohen, an administrator at The Epstein School, where Love worked, recalled a vivacious, energetic teacher whose life ended far too soon. 'She was so excited about her future,' said Cohen. 'A life, right at the beginning, was just cut short because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.'" -- Some information from murderpedia.org

ROY WILLARD BLANKENSHIP: Blankenship was convicted of the March 1978 rape and murder of 78-year-old Sarah Mims Bowen, who died from heart failure brought on by the trauma. Blankenship had done repair work for Bowen. His death sentence was imposed three separate times after two reversals. Blankenship was executed in June 2011. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

ANDREW GRANT DeYOUNG: DeYoung was convicted of stabbing his mother, Kathryn, to death in bed on June 14, 1993. He then slashed his father, Gary, to death and later stabbed his 14-year-old sister, Sarah, killing her. An accomplice testified that DeYoung, who was 19 at the time, wanted to start a business and killed his family for an amount he estimated at $480,000. DeYoung's 16-year-old brother Nathan escaped. DeYoung was executed in July 2011. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM IMPACT: Nathan DeYoung takes the witness stand in the death penalty trial of his older brother, Andrew Grant DeYoung, in October 1995.

TROY DAVIS: Davis was convicted of the shooting death of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail after Davis struck a homeless man in the head with a pistol at a Burger King restaurant in August 1989. Davis attempted to flee when MacPhail responded to the disturbance and shot MacPhail twice. He later shot MacPhail in the face. Several witnesses who placed Davis at the crime scene, identifying him as the shooter, recanted their accounts years later. Davis was executed September 2011. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM: Savannah Police officer MARK MacPHAIL: MacPhail was a former Army Ranger, married with two small children, when he was killed. "Weâve been here before. Weâre just hoping it will go all the way through this time,â Mark MacPhail Jr., who was an infant in 1989 when his father and namesake was shot to death in a Savannah Burger King parking lot, told the AJC's Rhonda Cook in a September 2011 article. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

ANDREW ALLEN COOK: Cook was sentenced to die for the January 1995 shooting deaths of two Mercer University (Macon) students, Grant Hendrickson and Michele Cartagena. The pair were shot at random while parked at nearby Lake Juliette. Cook's father, then an FBI agent, was asked to get his son to cooperate with investigators. John Cook did so, obtaining a confession from his son. He later testified at his son's trial. Cook died by lethal injection in February 2013. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIMS: GRANT HENDRICKSON and MICHELE CARTAGENA: Hendrickson was 22 when he was killed. Cartagena was 19. A February 2013 article in the Augusta Chronicle quoted Mary Hendrickson, the mother of one of the victims, as telling television station WMAZ-TV in Macon that she had been waiting 18 years for justice. âI think thatâs what it was: the devilâs work,â she said. âWhen all that is going on, I was just thinking to myself: âWell, the devil is not going to win. Heâs not going to win over my heart. He is not going to win.ââ -- Some information from murderpedia.org

MARCUS A. WELLONS: Wellons was convicted of the August 1989 rape and strangulation murder of 15-year-old India Roberts, the daughter of Wellons' then-girlfriend. Roberts was abducted on her way to school, raped and strangled with a telephone cord. Wellons was put to death in June 2014. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM: INDIA ROBERTS: Roberts was a 15-year-old student at Campbell High School in Cobb County when she was murdered.

ROBERT WAYNE HOLSEY: Holsey was sentenced to death for the December 1995 shooting death of Baldwin County Sheriff's Deputy Will Robinson after Robinson stopped Holsey following an armed robbery. Holsey shot Robinson as the deputy approached the vehicle. Robinson died from a fatal head wound. Holsey was executed in December 2014. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

VICTIM: Baldwin Co. Sheriff's Deputy WILL ROBINSON: Baldwin County Deputy Will Robinson and Georgia Gov. Zell Miller are shown in a picture made in 1994 when lawmen from around the state came to Atlanta to support Miller's two-strikes legislation.

ANDREW HOWARD BRANNAN: Brannan was convicted of the January 1998 shooting death of Laurens County Sheriff's Deputy Kyle Dinkheller after Dinkheller pulled Brannan over for speeding. Dinkheller's murder was captured on a patrol car video dashboard and is now used as training material in police academies nationwide. Brannan claimed he suffered from PTSD stemming from his Vietnam military service, but he was found guilty of murder in January 2000. Brannan was executed in January 2015. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

The KYLE DINKHELLER shooting: Brannan was captured on camera in Dinkheller's patrol car. Brannan ignored commands from Dinkheller, going to his truck to retrieve and M1 carbine. When Dinkheller fired a shot that missed Brannan, Brannan ran, firing, towards Dinkheller, who was shot nine times. After cursing the dying officer, Brannan fired a fatal shot into Dinkheller's head before fleeing the scene. After Dinkheller's death, he was named 1998 Deputy Sheriff of the Year by the Georgia Sheriffs' Association. Dinkheller, 22, when he was killed had a wife, a daughter and a son who was born after his father's death. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

WARREN LEE HILL: Hill was convicted of beating fellow Lee (County) Correctional Institute inmate Joseph Handspike to death with a nail-embedded board in August 1990. At the time, Hill was serving a sentence of life for the 1985 murder of his girlfriend. Hill was executed in January 2015. -- Some information from murderpedia.org

KELLY GISSENDANER: Gissendaner committed her crime in 1997. She persuaded her lover, Gregory Owen, to kill her husband, Doug. Owen knocked him unconscious, then stabbed him in the neck with a knife repeatedly. This took place in a remote, wooded spot. Gissendaner reported her husband missing the next day. He remained missing for two weeks, until game wardens found his body. Gissendaner died by lethal injection in September 2015.

VICTIM: DOUG GISSENDANER: â[Doug Gissendaner] was â¦ a family man, a great friend and an even greater father who loved and sacrificed everything for the sake of his daughter and two stepsons,â Doug Gissendaner's family said in a statement issued the day before the execution of Kelly Gissendaner. âFor those of us that loved him, we will always feel great sorrow and indescribable pain at how he was brutally taken from us, but also take comfort in knowing that heâs in heaven waiting for each and every one of us to rejoin him someday.â

MARCUS RAY JOHNSON: Johnson was convicted of the March 1994 rape and murder of Angela Sizemore. Johnson and Sizemore met at a bar in Albany, where they drank, danced, and had sex nearby. Sizemore was found dead in her SUV the next morning on the other side of town. She had been stabbed 41 times. Johnson always claimed his innocence, and said that he was too drunk to remember much from that night, but that she was alive when he left her. He was executed on Nov. 19, 2015. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

BRIAN KEITH TERRELL: Brian Keith Terrell was sentenced to die for the 1992 shooting and beating to death of John Watson, an elderly Newton County man. Terrell had previously stolen $8,700 from Watson, who was a friend of Terrell's mother. Terrell was executed on Dec. 9, 2015. His final words were "Didn't do it." (Georgia Department of Corrections)

BRANDON ASTOR JONES: Jones was sentenced to die for murdering Roger Tackett, the manager of a Cobb County convenience store. Tackett stayed late after the business's close in order to complete paperwork so that he would be free to spend Fatherâs Day with his young daughter. Jonesâ partner in the burglary-murder, Van Roosevelt Solomon, was electrocuted in 1985. Jonesâ case took longer in the appeals process than Solomonâs because a federal judge in 1989 ordered a resentencing once it was revealed that the jury in his trial had a Bible in the room while they deliberated. In 1997, Jones was sentenced to die for a second time. He was executed on Feb. 3 2016. (Courtesy of the Georgia Dept. of Corrections)

VICTIM: ROGER TACKETT: Roger Tackett, a one-time language teacher at then-Georgia Southern College, was managing a Tenneco convenience store and gas station in Cobb County when he was murdered by Brandon Astor Jones and Van Roosevelt Solomon in 1979. Tackett left behind a wife and daughter. (Family photo)

TRAVIS CLINTON HITTSON: Former Navy sailor Travis Clinton Hittson was sentenced to die in Houston County for murdering a shipmate, Conway Utterbeck. Hittson then, along with another shipmate, dismembered Utterbeckâs body, burying some body parts in Georgia and taking the rest to Pensacola, where the aircraft carrier they were assigned to was based. Hittson was executed on Feb. 17, 2016. He had been on Death Row since 1993. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

JOSHUA BISHOP: Bishop was convicted for the 1994 Baldwin County murder of Leverett Morrison. Bishop, then 19, and 36-year-old Mark Braxley murdered Morrison because they wanted the keys to his Jeep. Bishop and Braxley had been drinking with Morrison when they tried to steal his keys as he slept. When Morrison woke up, the two men hit Morrison with a car battery and then beat him with a curtain rod until he was dead. Bishop confessed to the muder but was put on trial anyway. Braxley, however, pleaded guilty and is serving a sentence of life with parole. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

KENNETH FULTS: Fults was sentenced to die for the 1996 murder of his 19-year-old neighbor Cathy Bounds. Fults confessed to being on a weeklong crime spree when he shot Bounds five times in the back of the head as she pleaded for her life. Fults pleaded guilty to the crime and has expressed remorse. Years later Fults appealed the death penalty sentencing on the grounds that one of the jurors had used racist language to describe him. The courts declined to hear that issue in Fultsâ appeals, writing that it was too late and âprocedurally barred.â (Georgia Department of Corrections)

DANIEL ANTHONY LUCAS: Lucas was sentenced to death for the April 1998 killings of 37-year-old Steven Moss, his 11-year-old son Bryan and 15-year-old daughter Kristin, who interrupted a burglary at their home near Macon in central Georgia. Lucas was 19 at the time and his accomplice in the crime, Brandon Rhode, was 18. Rhode was executed on Sept. 27, 2010. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

VICTIMS: STEVEN, BRYAN and KRISTIN MOSS: Steven Moss is pictured in a family photo with his children, 11-year-old Bryan and 15-year-old Kristin. Daniel Anthony Lucas and Brandon Rhode were ransacking the Moss home outside Gray, Ga., when Bryan came home from school. The boy armed himself with a metal baseball bat and entered the house, but was shot by Lucas. When the men saw Kristin walking up the driveway, they moved Bryan to another room and shot him again, this time killing him. Then they shot Kristin. Steven Moss, a truck driver, was killed moments after he stepped through the door. To ensure the children were dead, Lucas shot all three again and again. (Family photo)

JOHN W. CONNER: Conner was sentenced to die for the January 1982 beating death of J.T. White. White had said he wanted to have sex with Connerâs girlfriend, Beverly Bates. Conner beat White with a quart bottle and an oak tree branch, later returning to the crime scene to make sure White was dead. Conner was executed on July 14, 2016.

VICTIM: J.T. WHITE: After a night of drinking at a party, J.T. White and John Conner were walking back to Connerâs house when the pair got into a fight; White said he wanted to have sex with Connerâs girlfriend. Conner then beat White to death, leaving his body in a ditch.

GREGORY PAUL LAWLER: Lawler was convicted of murdering John âRickâ Sowa, a 28-year-old Atlanta policeman, and wounding Sowaâs partner, Pat Cocciolone, on Oct. 12, 1997, just moments after the two officers walked Lawlerâs intoxicated girlfriend to the front door of the apartment they shared. Lawler was executed on Oct. 19, 2016.

VICTIM: JOHN R. SOWA: Atlanta police Officer John R. Sowa was shot to death by Gregory Lawler on Oct. 12, 1997. (Photo: Atlanta Police Department website)

STEVEN SPEARS: Steven Spears was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Sherri Holland in 2001, by sufficating her in her bedroom. Spears had repeatedly threatened Holland and her family, and he had drawn up four different plans to kill her. After the killing, Spears hid from police for ten days before he was caught. He quickly confessed to the crime, saying, "If I had to do it again, I'd do it." Spears never contested his death sentence and refused efforts by his lawyers to stop the execution, or to contact him. Spears was executed on Nov. 16, 2016. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

WILLIAM SALLIE: Sallie murdered his father-in-law John Moore in 1990 during a violent rampage against his estranged wife’s family. He was executed on Dec. 6, 2016. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

J.W. LEDFORD: Ledford was convicted for the 1992 murder of his 73-year-old neighbor Dr. Harry Johnston, the physician who delivered Ledford when he was born. The first execution of 2017, Ledford had requested death by firing squad, on the grounds that a lethal injection would subject him to too much pain. That request was denied. He was put to death by lethal injection at 1:17 a.m. on Wednesday, May 17, 2017.

CARLTON GARY: Gary was executed March 15, 2018 for murdering three elderly women in Columbus in the late 1970s. Known as the "Stocking Strangler," seven deaths were attributed to Gary even though he was ultimately tried for the murders of only three women. For seven months in 1977 and 1978, the murders paralyzed Columbus and terrorized older women living in Columbus’ Wynnton neighborhood. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

ROBERT EARL BUTTS: Butts was executed May 4, 2018 for murdering Donovan Corey Parks, an off-duty corrections officer, in 1996. Butts, then 18, and Marion “Murdock” Wilson were sentenced to die in Baldwin County for shooting Parks in the back of the head with a sawed-off shotgun and then taking his 1992 Acura with hopes of selling it for parts. Photo: Georgia Department of Corrections

VICTIM: DONOVAN COREY PARKS was a 24-year-old correctional officer murdered on March 28, 1996, while off duty. Robert Butts and Marion Wilson Jr. were convicted for his murder. (PARKS FAMILY PHOTO)

SCOTTY GARNELL MORROW: Morrow was executed on May 2, 2019 for killing his ex-girlfriend Barbara Ann Young, who had broken up with him, and a second woman, Tonya Woods, who was at Young's Hall County house when he came for revenge. Young's 5-year-old son watched from a hiding place as Morrow shot his mother in the face and then as he shot a third woman, who survived. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

MARION WILSON: Wilson was executed on June 20, 2019 for the murder of 24-year-old off-duty corrections officer Donovan Corey Parks (see earlier). Wilson and co-defendant Robert Butts shot Parks in the head in 1996. Butts was executed in 2018.

RAY "JEFF" CROMARTIE: Cromartie was sentenced to die for the 1994 murder of 50-year-old Richard Slysz, a store clerk in South Georgia, a crime Cromartie always insisted he hadn’t committed. Cromartie didn’t deny involvement in the robbery attempt, but he claimed that a co-defendent was the one who pulled the trigger. Another co-defendent, who was the getaway driver, made this same claim in an affidavit one week before Cromartie's execution. Both co-defendents were sentenced to prison and were released in the early 2000s. Cromartie's defense tried to get new DNA testing in the case but failed, even though the victim’s daughter supported it. He was executed on Nov. 13, 2019. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

DONNIE LANCE: Lance was executed on Jan. 29, 2020 for the 1997 murders of his ex-wife and her boyfriend. Sabrina "Joy" Lance was beaten to death and Dwight "Butch" Wood was shot inside Wood’s Jackson county trailer. Lance maintained his innocence and his grown children spent months unsuccessfully calling for DNA testing to confirm whether he killed their mother. (Georgia Department of Corrections)

WILLIE JAMES PYE: Pye was executed on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, for the November 1993 killing of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough.

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Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, Georgia has executed 60-plus convicted criminals under sentence of death. Debate continues regarding capital punishment in Georgia and around the U.S. as those who protest the practice contend that it's exactly the sort of "cruel and unusual punishment" banned by the Constitution while those in favor of capital punishment argue that the victims of those convicted had lives and futures, too, that were criminally taken from them. Here's a look at some of those who were put to death in Georgia and their victims.

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